| FTBL College Football games on the NFL Network

planomateo

Member
Interesting read, I know some of you here don't care for the NFL, I still suggest you read this article. Its a read on the upcoming 10th year anniversary, more importantly it talks about a deal with ESPN they almost struck in 2009, which could have resulted in the NFL Network having access to air College Football games.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/b...s-and-72-million-homes.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1


NFL Network’s 10-Year Gains: 13 Games and 72 Million Homes
By JAMES ANDREW MILLER and RICHARD SANDOMIR

When the NFL Network celebrates its 10th anniversary next week, uphill battles and predictions of doom will be distant memories for those who kept the National Football League’s channel from going under during its early cliffhanger years.

Available in a modest 11.5 million homes when it started in 2003, the NFL Network now reaches more than 72 million homes with its most valuable product: 13 regular-season Thursday night games.

“There was certainly serious and smart debate about whether we should do it,” said Steve Bornstein, the network’s president, recalling the skepticism among team owners who had never started a network before. “We were very clear that this wasn’t for the faint of heart. The great thing is that ownership never lost patience and gave us the time to make it happen.”

The network began with original programming, including studio shows, before it started carrying eight games in 2006. In 2012, it added five more games. But that number could change, especially if owners grow restless about the comparatively low ratings the games are drawing on the league’s channel and are tempted by the enormous sums of money that N.F.L.-hungry cable networks like Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network would pay for, say, eight games.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Brian Rolapp, the chief operating officer of NFL Media who will succeed Mr. Bornstein next year. “Can we add games? Sure? Can we look for a partner for some of those games? Possibly.”

In the meantime, Mr. Rolapp is looking to create more shows that are exclusive to the network, like the four-day scouting combine where college players are worked out before the annual draft, and innovations like the RedZone channel, which switches from game to game on Sunday afternoons as teams get close to scoring.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about which franchises we can build and how we can build more tent-pole assets,” he said.

The N.F.L. was hardly a scarce commodity on television before the network made its debut, but its games were always in service to CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN, and brought those networks some of their highest viewership every week. The NFL Network would be different: it existed only to benefit the National Football League and to appeal directly to fans, players and coaches.

Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, viewed the network not only as a way to build a billion-dollar asset, but also as a defensive measure to keep any broadcast or cable networks from “squeezing us out.” “I always worried that one of our major partners might drop out on us,” he said.

And, he added, there was a promotional aspect to a league-owned network that carries only football programming. “We needed a vehicle to use on our own to basically advertise our product,” he said.

By electing to stay independent and not sell parts of the network to pay-TV providers to ensure distribution, the league had to engage in a series of ferocious distribution battles, most notably with the two largest cable operators in the country, Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The fight with Comcast ended in court; the battle with Time Warner Cable lasted nine years, with the cable operator saying the network was not worth the price for just eight games.

“We actually underestimated the challenge,” said Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner. “We thought it would be a lot easier than it was.”

Rich Eisen, the NFL Network’s lead studio host, said: “I didn’t think it would take nine years to be seen in my hometown of New York City. For a while there, we had better distribution in London.”

David Bank, an analyst for RBC Capital Markets, said that the NFL Network had pulled off an “incredible feat” to get broad distribution and substantial subscriber fees. “From an analyst’s standpoint, that’s checkmate,” he said, adding: “All of a sudden, last year, its ratings were starting to be disruptive to other prime-time programming. They’ve gotten that far.”

But, Mr. Bank said, the network should have carried more games earlier to accelerate its distribution.

In its current state — 13 games, 17 studio shows and more than 70 on-air personalities — the NFL Network is not a major threat to ESPN, the sports media giant. ESPN charges subscribers $5.54 a month; the NFL Network’s fee is $1.13, according to SNL Kagan, the media research firm. ESPN’s revenue is $8.3 billion compared with the NFL Network’s $1.1 billion.

And while viewership for the NFL Network’s games have more than doubled since 2006, to nine million so far this season, it is far from the 13.3 million who watch ESPN’s games and the 22.7 million who tune in to NBC’s Sunday night games.

Different as they are, ESPN and the NFL Network nearly became partners. In 2009, the league courted ESPN in a series of exhaustive negotiations that the league hoped would conclude with ESPN acquiring 50 percent of the NFL Network for $2 billion, according to league and network executives.

To help entice ESPN, the N.F.L. offered to reduce the price of “Monday Night Football.” The new “Monday Night” contract, which starts next season, will have ESPN paying an average of $1.9 billion a season, plus $100 million annually for a wild-card playoff game. The executives involved in the talks said the N.F.L. offered to cut the fee to $1.5 billion a year, with the playoff game tossed in as a signing bonus.

Perhaps even more attractive to ESPN than paying less was the N.F.L.’s suggestion that its “Monday Night” schedule would be improved. ESPN’s schedule has lacked the strength of NBC’s Sunday night games largely because the league turned “Sunday Night Football” into its marquee prime-time showcase.

The N.F.L. wanted more than a big investor; it coveted some of ESPN’s college games. With football games from the elite Big Ten Conference or the Southeastern Conference, the NFL Network would have more live events — its 13 N.F.L. games provided only about 39 hours of live event programming — enhancing its status as a football channel.

ESPN’s willingness to give up some of its best college games proved the most critical issue, and the network ultimately backed away, reluctant to cede a commodity as priceless as a part of its college football schedule — regardless of the benefits to its N.F.L. business. Talks got so promising that cases of Champagne were ordered and stashed away at N.F.L. headquarters in Manhattan for the anticipated celebration of an agreement.

A senior ESPN executive acknowledged the discussions and said that in addition to concerns about distribution, the issue of which ESPN games would be shared proved too big an obstacle. This became clear to both sides after ESPN actually submitted a list of tentative college games to the league.

After the talks ended, some league executives were convinced that ESPN was ultimately unwilling to become a full partner because it did not want to get involved in the contentious efforts to help the NFL Network gain additional distribution.

For now, the NFL Network continues to expand. Ten years ago, it carried six hours of live programming during Super Bowl Week; this year, those hours are set to total more than 140. But perhaps its biggest coup has been its draft coverage, which has been more than competitive with ESPN. It was ESPN that turned that nonevent into an avidly watched TV tradition.

“We don’t pound our chests about anything,” said Mr. Eisen, a former ESPN studio anchor. “We take the sport very seriously, but not ourselves. Fans don’t want to see people who are so full of themselves, as they do at other places.”
 
Back
Top Bottom